


A real Dick move

by Multifandom_damnation



Category: Titans (TV 2018)
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Aftermath of Violence, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Dreams and Nightmares, Drinking & Talking, Food Issues, Gen, Home Invasion, Loss of Identity, Loss of Innocence, Memories, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Safehouses, Speculation, Vomiting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-09-21 03:07:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17035410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Multifandom_damnation/pseuds/Multifandom_damnation
Summary: The asylum broke everyone in different ways and forces them to cope with their own individual hell. The best way to overcome the experience is to do it together, right? But no matter how much Kory tries to tell him that, Dick is still dead set on leaving her with a couple of traumatised teens and an almost- mother in an effort to get his own head on straight. Kory doesn't know when or if he'll be back, but she'll die before she lets anything happen to these people without her trying to stop it.(Or: My interpretation of the gap between 1x07 and 1x08 regarding Kory having to step up and look after her new not-family in the wake of Dick's departure.)





	A real Dick move

They had only just escaped the asylum, gotten past waking up screaming after nightmares and moved on to sharing knowing glances across dining tables, and Dick was leaving them _again_. Taking off on the road to spend some time with an old friend of his, someone who was obviously more important than the team he had accumulated behind him. Kory watched him with a scowl as he quickly packed as many belongings into his bags as he could. “You’re staring, Kory.” He tossed the comment at her with little regard, stuffing a grey shirt into the already bursting bag.

“I was just thinking about how full of shit you are,” Kory replied, looking at her nails. She hoped the remark would at least give Dick pause, make him turn to her and look her in the eyes when he tells her the real reason why he’s leaving them is to escape his own emotional baggage that the asylum brought out, but he doesn’t even stop his methodical movements, as if he’s run through his exact conversation a million times in his head and knew every way it could end. “You tell us you’re here to help us, to keep us alive, to help Rachel figure out her powers, but the moment things get tough, you leave us to fend for ourselves. Doesn’t seem like a leader to me.”

Dick shoved a greyscale photograph of two parents in matching leotards hugging a much smaller child huddled between them into the already over-stuffed bag. “I don’t know what you want me to say, Kory. You guys are strong enough to look after yourselves for a couple of days, and we blew up that building, so nobody will be coming after Rachel any time soon.”

Biting her lip, Kory glanced out the window to where Angela was looking through the images on Rachel’s phone and Garfield was sleeping with his head in Rachel’s lap, her hands gently rubbing his head as he purred through his dreams. “Gar’s only _just_ started eating again. My scars have only just stopped hurting when I breathe. Rachel is smiling again and is letting us touch her. Angela is saying full sentences to people other than her daughter. And fuck, I don’t know what happened to you, but I can tell that you’ve changed and that now you’re getting a little better. You really want to leave us alone with trauma we don’t know how to deal with?”

“You’ll be fine.” Dick insisted, hoisting the bag onto his shoulder, and Kory watched him reach for the black case on the table before he remembered it burning in the flaming wreckage of the asylum. “I won’t be gone long, maybe a week at most. Besides, there are two adults in this group and one of them is a mother.”

“Who has no experience looking after a child, let alone two children who both have extraordinary powers.” Kory crossed her arms over her chest. “You know we can’t do this without you.”

Sighing, Dick gripped the strap of the bag with one hand as he turned to look at Kori. “I won’t be gone long. You can survive for a couple of days.”

There were a million things Kory wanted to say that were burning on her tongue, but she kept her mouth closed as Dick approached her and made his way past her towards the door, almost refusing to turn his head back and look at her. He paused to pat down his pockets and make sure he still had his car keys, his wallet, his badge and his phone exactly where he left them. “What are you going to tell Rachel? I distinctly remember you promising never to leave her again.”

“I don’t know, Kory.” Dick whirled back to glare at her. “All I know is that I’m not going to be any use to you here. Not like this. So I’m going to go see my friend- and who knows? Maybe she knows about Rachel. Maybe she knows who you are.”

“Look at them!” Kory threw her arm out toward the window and Dick looked diligently at it. “They’re fucked up! We’re all fucked up! And you’re just going to leave me with this shit to clean up myself. Listen, Dick, I’m not trying to make you feel guilty, but I know you’ve gone through trauma. Nobody can live the life you have and not make it out with suffering. But I hardly know how to deal with it myself let alone all of us. I don’t know how I’m going to do it.”

“I know Kory but… I need to do this.” Dick placed a sympathetic hand on her arm as she hugged her middle. “I swear to you I’ll be back, but until then, you guys will just have to figure it out on your own, ok? Once I sort myself out, I’ll be back to help the rest of you through this.”

Nodding in resignation, Kory walked him out and watched the ensuring shit-show once Dick told Rachel that he was leaving her again. She shook and cried and screamed and Garfield blearily blinked up at him once Dick ran a hand down his back. Angela just watched sadly as Rachel begged Dick to stay and watched him wearily as he got into the car and drove away.

* * *

 “I’m ordering pizza,” Kory announced once night had fallen and the taillights of Dick’s car was far out of sight. “No pineapple, no meat, anything for you Miss Azarath?” Kory asked politely and Angela shook her head with a small smile. “Right. You know the drill. Don’t let anyone in, call me if anyone knocks, don’t leave until I get back.”

They ate in relative silence, something Kory had gotten used to over the long week. Rachel was coxing her mother to eat small slivers of the pizza and Garfield was diligently picking at it to make it look like he had eaten more than he had. Kory didn’t say anything about any of it- that was Dick’s job, and Dick was away.

After watching a few episodes of Garfield’s favourite show and eating popcorn Kory might have paid too much for, Kory ushered Rachel and her mother off to bed. Garfield stayed with her on the couch, his head pillowed on his arm, and his eyes staring transfixed at the TV, though Kory doubted he was actually watching it. “You should go to bed, Gar,” She advised, even though she knew it would be a futile effort- since the asylum, aside from not eating, Garfield never slept at night and only took naps during the day surrounded by people who could make him feel a modicum of safety- a safety that was enhanced when Dick was around. “Try and rest up for tomorrow.”

As an alternative to answering, Garfield simply shook his head and refused to take his eyes away from the muted flashing lights on the screen. He ran a hand through his hair as he thought about the answer he knew he owed to Kory, but came up dry. “We aren’t doing anything tomorrow.” He said instead. “With Dick gone, we can’t go anywhere in case he can’t find us again. And it’s not like we can just leave, especially not alone.”

Kory couldn’t find any rebuttal to the argument and turned back to the show on the screen. “Try and rest.” She said before she could change her mind and she stood up to go check on Rachel.

Angela was buried under a mountain of pillows when Kory walked quietly into the room, Rachel sitting beside her mother and running a hand through her hair while she sang a soft sort of lullaby about a raven. She looked up when Kori entered. “Is Gar alright?”

“No change,” Kory muttered as she sunk heavily into one of the chairs by the bed. “He’s still watching TV. I know I can’t force him to do anything so I’ll just leave him be- see if he passes out from exhaustion.”

Humming, Rachel seemed to think quietly to herself for a moment, and Kory gave her that time. “Dick could probably make Gar do whatever.” It wasn’t a jab at Kory, but a statement of fact, because they both knew how Garfield had always been obsessed with Batman and Robin long before the group had met, and knew that despite what he said, Garfield was afraid of Dick, just a little bit.

“Yeah, I know, but Dick’s not here.” Kory ran a hand through her hair and let her fingers settle familiarly in the tangles. “So you're stuck with me. Because apparently, he thought that sorting through his issues with a friend who has no idea what happened in that fucking asylum would be better than talking with his team who went through the same fucking thing.”

Rachel chuckled to herself for a moment. “A real dick move huh.” Kory reached over to give her a very eager high-five. “I hope he comes back. He promised he would come back soon but I don’t think he was completely telling the truth.”

“He’ll come back,” Kory reassured, but she didn’t completely believe it herself. Dick’s promises didn’t mean much. “Get some sleep, I’ll wake you in the morning. I’ll bring you back a surprise when I go to the store.” Kory tucked Rachel into bed beside her mother and closed the door quietly behind her in her exit.

* * *

 Another trip to the store had Kory slamming down a plastic bowl of cheap salad and shoved a fork into Garfield’s hand. “Finish it,” She snapped and Garfield blinked in surprise. “Don’t test me.” She waited until Garfield brought a shaking spoonful to his lips, without breaking eye contact with her, and she turned to walk away.

Rachel grabbed her as she passed. “I know you’re tired but go easy on him. Food makes him sick and forcing him to eat isn’t going to make him any better any faster.”

Gulping, Kory rushed into the shower with a guilty look back at a gagging Garfield and Rachel kneeling down by his side.

* * *

 Grunting, Kory lifted the fabric of her top and grimaced at the mirror as she ran her fingers lightly over the scar on her abdomen. The skin around it was swollen and despite being able to heal faster than normal, the tissue was still red and tender to the touch. She knew that she doesn’t really have anything to worry about- Dick was covered in scars and he seemed to be happy with them. Even Garfield, despite living a more sheltered life without danger, had a few scars dotting his body and they didn’t bother him at all.

But Kory couldn’t help but close her eyes and feel the burn of the laser sinking through her skin, the stench of burning flesh and the feel of the tube sliding down her throat. It made her sick how much stuck with her, after so long, that sometimes she woke up gasping with the remaining feeling of it in her bones.

* * *

While she was out getting food, the motel was attacked, and their rooms bombarded by intruders. Kory knew that nothing was taken and that nobody was hurt, but Rachel was taking deep breaths to calm the swirling, inky black storm above her head, Angela was huddled in the corner with her hands covering her face and there was a sickly trail of blood that led to the bathroom where Garfield was currently bent over the toilet bowl, retching.

Sighing, Kory dumped the forgotten food onto the table and looked to Rachel, who had finally gotten control. “We can’t stay here; this place has been compromised.”

“What about Dick?” Rachel hated herself for it, but she had to ask.

“He’s not coming back.” Garfield managed before Kory can think of a reply, and they turned to watch him slump heavily against the doorframe, wiping the blood from his lips with a shaking hand. There was blood down the front of his shirt, his jacket discarded before the battle and thankfully unspoiled. “We all know that. He’s left us, and he’s not ever coming back.”

It hurt Kory deep down to see bubbly Garfield so bitter and defeated, but she knew he was right. “Get your things,” she said instead. “We need to find somewhere else to crash.”

* * *

 Kory liked flames, especially the flames she created from her very soul and burned her familiarly when she closed her eyes. But standing there over the many charred bodies that she had reduced to cinders without a second thought, it made her question if fire really was all she is.

* * *

 Dick sent his first text to them far too long after he left, and instead of dashing the hopes of the rest of the group, Kory deleted the message and shoved her phone back into her pocket. 

* * *

 Garfield was lying face down on the floor in a puddle of his own blood, his fur mattered with mud and splotches of red that soaked into it from the bullet wounds. Kory had Angela putting pressure on the wounds while she coaxed Garfield into transforming back into himself.

In the background, Rachel screamed an almighty sound, one filled with anguish and rage, and thick darkness swirled around her as her blackened eyes stared upwards at the sky. The men- hunters, poachers, unlucky people who saw something exotic and expected a high pay- were either dead, dying or fleeing for their lives. When there was not a living person before her, Rachel took a deep breath and summoned all the energy back into her body and fell to her knees beside Garfield just as the last of the green left his skin and his face morphed all the way out of the tiger. Kory threw her jacket over his lower half, not caring in the slightest about any stains the blood would leave.

A frantic Angela had managed to dig the bullet out of Garfield’s body and the pain made him scream once, loudly, before his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he went lax in Rachel’s arms.

Angela wanted to take him to a hospital and Rachel wanted to take him home but Kory knew what to do, and she lifted Garfield easily in her arms, carried him to the backseat of the van they had rented and would probably have to buy after they stained the leather with blood, pulled out a half-empty bottle of tequila and the sewing kit Angela kept in her bag and went to work.

* * *

The flames licked at their skin and the smoke rose high into the sky as Garfield eagerly showed Rachel the best ways to roast the perfect marshmallow and Angela watched on fondly, chocolate bars and biscuits at the ready. Rachel’s marshmallow glowed as an ember set it on fire and Garfield laughed so hard that he fell backwards off his log when Rachel tried to blow out the flames and ended up igniting her stick too.

It was the first time that Kory had seen them not only carefree but happy since the asylum and she couldn’t help but laugh along as Garfield moaned out a complaint about the sticky marshmallow Rachel put in his hair as revenge for him laughing at her. Kory caught Angela’s eye in the firelight and they both chuckled at their antics. “Kids.” Angela laughed and Kory rolled her eyes in agreement.

Dick was going to be disappointed that he missed this- if he ever came back. “Oi, chuck me a marshmallow.” Kory grinned at Rachel and Garfield’s surprised look of excitement. “Let me show you how it’s done.”

* * *

 It was unsurprising how the only person who had seemed at ease with sleeping in a barn was Garfield- the animal side of him coming through strong as he found his own pile of hay and laid down with a contented sigh. Rachel had joined him, not wanting him to be too far away after the mishap with the poachers, and they turned their backs to each other as they snored. Kory was sitting against the wall beside Angela, hay under them and Kory’s furred coat across their laps to keep them warm, a paper-wrapped bottle of wine passed between them.

“They seem to be close,” Angela nodded towards the two sleeping children. “Like best friends. I’m glad that Rachel has something like that. It’s all I’ve ever wanted for her.”

“Yeah.” Kory watched as Garfield shifted and put his back against Rachel’s in his sleep. Rachel didn’t pull away, apparently not minding the higher body heat. “I’m glad they’ve got each other. It would have been rough on both of them if they had to go through this whole thing alone. And with Dick gone, we’ve sort of lost our divining rod- we don’t know where we are headed right now.”

Angela took a swig of the bottle before passing it back to Kory. “It’s nice that they both have a friend their age. Hanging out with us doesn’t really give them any time to just be kids, you know? We’re all too old for roasting marshmallows over open fires and running around naked in the snow.” Kory raised her eyes but didn’t comment. “It’s nice knowing that they’re not alone.”

“And you’re ok with…” Kory used the end of the bottle to indicate the sleeping figures at the other end of the barn. “Them? Being so close?”

Laughing, Angela shook her head as she appraised the youngest among them. “I may not have been a mother for very long, but I still am a mother. The way Gar looks at her is honestly more hero worship than love. You can see it in his eyes every time she does anything.” She smiled softly. “He’s so gentle with her too- like he knows how powerful he is but he’s afraid that he’ll hurt her.”

Laughing softly under her breath, Kory’s front teeth clanked against the neck of the bottle as she brought it to her lips. “Yeah, I get that. I’m just glad that-"

She was cut off from a distressed moan from a sleeping Garfield, followed by a pained gasp from Rachel. Kory and Angela exchanged a worried glance before Kory sat the bottle down and they both stood up, making their way towards the sleeping forms in record time. Garfield had covered Rachel in his jacket before they fell asleep and he writhed underneath the pile of hay he had covered himself in. Beside him, Rachel’s face was scrunched up in distress. Angela reached down and gently ran her hand down her daughters flushed and sweaty face while Kory bent over and shook Garfield by the shoulder. “Wake up you two.” There was no response and Kory shared a look with a frantic Angela. “How coincidental is it that they’re both having a nightmare at the same time?”

“It’s not.” Angela shook her head as she tried and failed to wake Rachel up. “I had a feeling that she can share and influence emotions but I didn’t know about… dreams.” She frowned. “Especially not this bad so soon after learning about them.”

Garfield huffed and rubbed his face into the scratchy hay as his skin shaded to green and fur sprouted along his cheeks. That worried Kory more than anything, even more so than the dark veins appearing under Rachel’s eyes and the rapidly dropping temperature in the barn.

Before either Kory or Angela could wake them up, both Rachel and Garfield stopped convulsing for a moment before they sat straight up with an unending scream of fear that sounded like a thunderclap, their eyes opening wide with fright, panting hard and fast in the aftermath of what Kory could only assume was one mighty nightmare.

Angela instantly wrapped her arms around Rachel, who buried her face into her mother’s shoulder as she sobbed, chest heaving and staining Angela’s shirt with tears, Rachel’s own arms coming up to wrap around her mother, seeing comfort and warmth in the suddenly cold room. As Angela hushed Rachel’s tears, Kory looked to Garfield, who was staring wide-eyed at the floor, shaking hands clenched tightly in the hay in place of blankets and his chest was rising and falling just as much as Rachel’s, as if his tiger had gone for a run while Garfield was sleeping.

At a loss for what to do, Kory slowly reached forward and wrapped Garfield in her arms in an effort to copy the comfort Angela was giving the slowly calming Rachel. After a moment Garfield leant into the embrace but kept his arms away and his hands fisted in the hay they had used as a bed. He was shaking hard against her and Kory could feel the sweat and tears on Garfield’s skin where it met her own.

No words were spoken but slowly Rachel reached a shaking hand out to Garfield and he gradually took it in his own, and Angela and Kory exchanged a glance over their heads with raised eyebrows and pursed lips.

Dick was so going to get it when he came back.

* * *

 Not too long later, Dick arrived at the small home they were staying in with a woman in tow, who introduced herself as ‘Donna Troy, an old crime-fighting friend of Dick’s’ and Kory barely smiled at her in greeting before she was grabbing Dick by the arm and leading his roughly into another room.

He didn’t utter a sound as Kory shoved him hard against the back wall and his head hit the wood, her arm pinning him back, but he looked at her with a soft sense of sadness and something akin to a silent apology. Kory wanted to slap it right off his face.

“If you ever,” She hissed, getting as close to him as she could without physically touching him. “If you _ever_ leave me- leave _us_ \- like that again, I will burn you so fucking badly that they won’t be able to identify your body in the morgue.”

Dick sighed sadly and Kory wondered if he took her threat seriously or if he was just letting her vent out her frustrations. Honestly, she wasn’t sure either. “I’m sorry, Kory. I’m so sorry. I just… I needed to get away for a little while and I thought that they would be fine with you…”

“You were wrong.” Kory choked out into the following silence, trying to hold back the tears that threatened to spill over. “They’re fucked up. We all are, each and every one of us. You thought leaving a couple of traumatised kids and a woman who hadn’t seen the sun in almost a decade with an amnesiac whose immediate response to danger is setting it on fire and has no memory of social cues would be a good idea? You fucked up Dick. Big time.”

Biting his lower lip, Dick reached a hand out and slowly stroked it down Kory’s face, who surprising let him. “I’m so sorry I left you guys, but after the asylum I… I needed to figure out who I was again. Because Jason was right- I used to be Robin, but that’s not who I am anymore. I haven’t been him for a very long time. And fuck, maybe I’m not Dick Grayson either.”

It was suddenly becoming difficult for Kory to hold back her tears because Dick was here, he came back, and he was looking at her and touching her with so much love that she could hardly believe that it was real. “Well,” she said eventually, voice wavering as tears made her throat thick and her vision blurry. “Did you find who you were looking for?”

Maybe it was something in her face, or he saw something in her eyes because Dick was tutting in sympathy and wrapping his arms around her, bringing her head down on his shoulder and threading his fingers in her hair as it cascaded down her back and obscured her wet and snotty face from his vision. “Yeah Kory, I think I did. I’m not going to be Robin anymore. I’m… going to be something else. _Someone_ else. Someone better and more me than Robin ever was. Something that will only ever be mine.”

“Good,” Kory whispered into his shoulder. Involuntarily, she brought her arms up and wrapped them around him as well. She didn’t know who she was comforting at this point. “That’s good.”

Because it _was_ good- Dick was _back_ (he came back!), and they had all made a new friend named Donna Troy who Garfield was currently gushing about in the other room and who was dramatically retelling her most incredible exploits with Rachel in her mother’s arms laughing along and Kory was in Dick’s arms for the first time in what felt like forever and fuck she was so happy.

For the first time, everything seemed to be looking up.


End file.
